Home Office reveals huge increase in fines for Right to Rent non-compliance
Agents and landlords from January 2024 will see fines raised in some cases from £80 per tenant to £5,000 if they were not checked properly.
Letting agents completing Right to Rent checks on behalf of landlords face a more perilous environment after the Home Office revealed it has hugely increased the fines for non-compliance.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick (pictured) announced the huge increase of the fines, which will apply to businesses who employ people not entitled to work in the UK as well as tenants.
For landlords the fines will increase from £80 per lodger and £1,000 per occupier for a first breach to up to £5,000 per lodger and £10,000 per occupier.
Repeat breaches will be up to £10,000 per lodger and £20,000 per occupier, up from £500 and £3,000 respectively. The higher penalties will come in at the start of 2024.
Jenrick has also revealed that landlords have been hit with over 320 civil penalties worth a total of £215,500 since the start of 2018 when the Government’s Right to Rent rules were first introduced.
Boat crossings
He says: “Making it harder for illegal migrants to work and operate in the UK is vital to deterring dangerous, unnecessary small boat crossings.
“Unscrupulous landlords and employers who allow illegal working and renting enable the business model of the evil people smugglers to continue.
There is no excuse for not conducting the appropriate checks and those in breach will now face significantly tougher penalties.”
“Increasing fines will deter employers and landlords from engaging in these illegal and dangerous practices, further deterring people from attempting to come to the UK illegally.”
Agents working for landlords must already be checking the eligibility of anyone they employ or let a property to and there are a number of ways to do this, which are not changing, including via a manual check of original documentation and a Home Office online checking system.
Read more about Right to Rent.
